No one is being "sacrificed" for anything. One person is speaking. The other party is murdering. There's no cause-and-effect except in the deranged minds of the murderers. I refuse to dignify their stupid and imaginary pretexts for violence.

You have a choice as to whether you would attend that concert, do her children have a choice in having their lives put in danger because their mother wanted to make a statement that would make crazy people crazier? And what would that statement truly accomplish?

True. I don't blame Madonna for changing her mind. Now she can stop pretending to be a boldly transgressive radical speaking truth-to-power, and re-focus on being an aging pop star who exchanges glimpses of her boobies for occasional news coverage.

"You have a choice as to whether you would attend that concert, do her children have a choice in having their lives put in danger because their mother wanted to make a statement that would make crazy people crazier?"

-- If she didn't want to make them crazier, she would not have leaked this story. This story getting out there will be just as offensive to the people who are actually liable to be offended. She just lacks follow-through and courage to insult people who won't sit there and take it.

I'm not denying that her choice in the end, had no selfless purpose, it could very well have to do with ticket sales alone, but if she were a good mother she wouldn't put her minor children in such a situation. Of course you are free to disagree, I'm sure you will, one of the blessings of living in a Democracy.

Oh, it is soooo typical of you conservative Christian nuts to criticize her! She made her point by wearing it in private! Now she'll have plenty of time to work on a new piece deploring the awfulness of the Catholic church. Take that, heaters!

Yes, let's surrender to the crazies every time. We'll turn the heckler's veto into the murderer's veto. That way lies freedom.

The key takeaway is not that Madonna's a coward for not appearing in the terrorist dress. It's that she's a poseur for pretending to be edgy by mocking a Christianity when she - and everyone else - knows doing so presents zero retaliatory danger to herself.

Inga, please don't go into your whole "yeah we can do it but we shouldn't because it might offend people and when they get offending they kill us and it's our fault then because we should not just offend people for the fun of it" mode again.

Anyway, Madonna's actions are typical of the people who say they are anti-religion when, in fact, they are anti-Christian. They don't have the balls to bash Islam because they know they won't just get prayer-circles and boycotts in response.

"TWM, I wasn't embarrassed. That's all that matters to me, what makes you think that I should care about your opinion of me? It's best to try to control yourself, not other people."

Well, it should have embarrassed you. Your whittling away at free speech with that "self-control" nonsense is dangerous. If it were just you no one would care, but when the left is trying to stretch the "crying fire in a theater" limitation to just simply offending someone that should worry all free people.

We have the right, and sometimes the obligation to offend people. To mock and disagree at the top of our lungs. How they react is 100% on them.

"The key takeaway is not that Madonna's a coward for not appearing in the terrorist dress. It's that she's a poseur for pretending to be edgy by mocking a Christianity when she - and everyone else - knows doing so presents zero retaliatory danger to herself."

I agree with that, too. After posing for 50 years as the courageous, transgressive set defending free speech and expression, most of these "artists" have proven to be all talk and no action. When the World War II generation was called to defend our values and way of life, they put aside personal concerns and did what had to be done, quietly, at great personal risk to themselves in a war the brutality of which couldn't be foreseen. This current group, on the other hand, after blathering for decades about how great they are, finally gets their chance to show true courage and they run away.

So really there are two issues -1) Society as a whole and how it deals with insane Islamism, i.e. we cannot grant them a murderer's veto.

and

2) Individuals, and whether their deeds will match their self-inflated opinion of themselves. They don't have to do brave, transgressive things against Islamists. But if they don't have the courage to stand up against the greatest threat to intellectual freedom of our time (as the World War II generation stood up) they need, as you observe, to dump the self-congratulatory praise they routinely heap upon themselves. Truth in advertising, and all.

No TWM, It would be odd if I cared what strangers on a political forum thought of my opinion. You are free to disagree with me as I am with you, but when you get personal it only reflects badly on you.

Is Madonna's "speech", so precious that it's worth the danger it poses to her children? Not in my opinion and I am free to have one and you are free to disagree, but I most certainly do not need to be embarrassed by my own opinion. That is controlling of you and doesn't fit your narrative of respecting free speech.

Quaestor, Islamists aren't crazier than Christian Fundamentalists? I think Fundamentalists of every religion can be dangerous, but I don't think Christian Fundamentalists have sunk to the same level of Islamists.

Gerry, some speech is truly precious, I don't consider anything Madonna "says" to be of any value, much less putting others lives in danger over, but I would not agree with her not having the right to make it.

No government agency forced her to make her decision to not go through with her precious "statement". It was a good decision, whether it was for the safety of her children or lost concert ticket sales.

"No TWM, It would be odd if I cared what strangers on a political forum thought of my opinion. You are free to disagree with me as I am with you, but when you get personal it only reflects badly on you."

Look, if we are disagreeing on something innocuous - like what color we prefer for drapes - that's one thing. But when you propose we should limit our speech because we might offend someone and that, once offended, any violent reaction they have towards us is somehow remotely our fault, well, then yeah I take it personally. You want to restrict your rights that's fine with me, but don't expect me to just follow along because you think it's best.

"Is Madonna's "speech", so precious that it's worth the danger it poses to her children? Not in my opinion and I am free to have one and you are free to disagree, but I most certainly do not need to be embarrassed by my own opinion. That is controlling of you and doesn't fit your narrative of respecting free speech."

All speech is precious. The fact that you don't see that is quite embarrassing. As to my being controlling, well, that's just nonsense. You are free to say what you want and others, including me, are free to voice our opinions otherwise. If you decide to stop talking that's on you since, like I said, you are free to restrict your own speech all you want.

TWM, no one gets to decide, she made the decision for HERSELF. You are attempting to make it appear as if I am saying she doesn't have the right or shouldn't have the right to free speech. She does, again the decision was hers, not the governments or mine. I have the right to say her speech is crap, but we all have the right to crappy speech.

Gerry, the Islamists should most certainly be in control of themselves, good luck getting them to do it. I'm sure they will comport themselves as you wish, because you demand it.

Muslims, islamists, and jihads everywhere will be gone in a generation or 2. Iran alone has a negative birthrate I've never seen before and an exodus by it's people. Like all death cults, it too will be gone soon enough. You are watching a pre-medieval, unreformed religious movement in it's death throes because it is a moon god worshiping death cult.

Yes Mam, and Madonna has made a career of it. In this case, she's just prevaricating ... nobody of any substance actually told her squat diddly about her life in danger for wearing a dress she portrays as a "Muslim Bridal Dress."

Why would they...she hasn't clue one about what such a dress might be...since there are at least a dozen varieties per country. I doubt Mz M has ever even been to a Muslim wedding.

"Islam says: Whatever good there is exists thanks to the sword and in the shadow of the sword! People cannot be made obedient except with the sword! The sword is the key to paradise, which can be opened only for holy warriors!

I understand that some women/girls have been or have felt inspired by Madonna. I never got the hype. I think saying that Madonna is good for women is a bit like saying Andrew Dice Clay is good for men.

Back in the day she was the "immaterial girl". These days, when I listen to even less corporate music, I give her a grudging respect for survival. And I confess I thought that was a great performance of hers at the Superbowl.

So much the worse, then. You're trying to make it, here, just about Madonna being free to do or not do what she wants; but over there it was very clear you were saying, "Don't say stuff if it will arouse the crazies".